Educated

Educated by Tara Westover

Trigger warnings for this book: Domestic Violence, Gaslighting, Religious Extremism


Impossible to put down, but very difficult to read, I read the majority of this book in one sitting. The first half in particular I was unable to stop reading, and had to keep pushing through to see Tara get out of the incredibly toxic family situation she grew up in. It felt like putting the book down would have trapped her there longer than necessary.

Tara writes candidly and beautifully about her experiences growing up as the youngest in a fundamentalist Mormon family, with a father (and at least one brother) with severe, untreated mental illness that makes them erratic, violent, paranoid & deluded. While the memories she shares are shocking & troubling, as the book progresses who she becomes shines through, and you see her begin to grow out of the shell constructed for her by her family and their beliefs.

An excellent read that doesn’t shy away from telling the difficult parts, but doesn’t over sensationalize them either. Tara’s perspective is filled with hope & love despite the trauma of her upbringing. This is a look into an often shrouded sect of our population, and a story about family - both that we are born into and that we find as we go through life.

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,” she says now. “You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.”